About the Book

Community service work is an ideal way not only to help define how young people deal with each other but actually to facilitate these interactions and help them achieve meaning in their lives. This book addresses community service ways to overcome divisions, foster multicultural group development, and reduce ethnocentrism and ethnic conflict.

About the Author(s)

August John Hoffman is a professor of psychology at California State University Northridge and El Camino College-Compton Center. His research interests include community service work and student mentoring as effective methods to reduce ethnic conflict and improve self-efficacy among community college students.

Norma Espinosa Parker, born in Havana, is a developer of the CCC Cultural and Fine Arts Academy, whose more than 300 students from different backgrounds, cultures, and races were enrolled in a summer and after school music program.

Eduardo Sanchez is a psychology student at California State University Northridge. He collaborates with Hoffman on various research projects involving community relations. His research interests include interracial interaction through community service work.

Julie Wallach is a graduate of California State University Northridge. She has co-authored more than a dozen articles with Hoffman.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

1. Community Service Work in Compton College: Bringing People Together via Gardening Work 11
2. Group Work as a Necessary Factor of Human Evolution: Work Cooperatively Together or Perish 26
3. The Establishment of Roles within the Group 44
4. The Dynamic Relationship between Collaborative Learning and Community Service Work: Working Together for a Common Purpose 56
5. The Relationship between Community Service Learning and Interdependency: Our “External” Differences Help Us to Realize Our “Internal” Similarities 68
6. Community Service Work: Improving Communication and Reducing Student Ethnocentrism 80
7. Teaching Principles of Group Development vs. Individual Gain 88
8. Reducing Prejudice and Discrimination via Interdependency 102
9. Keeping It Real: The Influence of Technology on the Quality of Interpersonal and Group Relationships 125
10. The Paradox of Maintaining Ethnic and Cultural Identity and Assimilating in the Dominant Group 138
11. Reducing Hate Crimes via Community Service Work in Multiethnic Student Populations 147
12. The Critical Periods for Incorporating Community Service Work Principles 167

Appendix A Understanding Immigration Reform and Ethnocentrism from the Cuban Perspective (by Dr. Norma Espinosa Parker) 187Appendix B Directly from the People: How Community Service Work Has Changed the Lives of Individuals within the Community 201Bibliography 205Index 211